Description
These soft, chewy gluten-free molasses cookies have warm spices and a satisfying crackle crunch on the outside you’re going to LOVE. They’re a perfect cookie for a holiday cookie tray or cookie exchange!
Ingredients
Scale
Dry Ingredients:
- 2 1/3 cup (280 grams) gluten-free measure-for-measure flour*
- 2 teaspoons baking soda
- 1 1/2 teaspoons ground ginger
- 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt (use half the amount if using fine table salt)
Wet Ingredients:
- 3/4 cup butter, softened to room temperature (1 1/2 sticks or 12 Tablespoons)*
- 1/2 cup light brown sugar (100 grams)
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar (100 grams)
- 1/4 cup unsulphured molasses*
- 1 large egg
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
To Roll The Cookies:
- 1/2 cup coarse sugar*
Instructions
- Cream Butter & Sugars. In the bowl of a stand mixer (or a large mixing bowl), combine softened butter, brown sugar, and sugar. Cream on medium speed with a paddle attachment or hand mixer for 2-3 minutes, until light and fluffy.
- Finish Wet Ingredients. Mix in the molasses. Add egg and vanilla and mix on low speed until smooth (30-60 seconds).
- Add Dry Ingredients. Next, add gluten-free flour blend, baking soda, ginger, cinnamon, cloves, and salt. Mix on low speed until just combined. Scrape down the sides of the bowl one more time and cover the cookie dough.
- Chill Dough At Least 2 Hours in the fridge, up to overnight. (Make sure the dough is covered well if chilling longer than 2 hours so the dough doesn’t dry out. Honestly, the longer you chill them, the better, up to 2 days.
- Preheat Oven & Prep Pans. When you’re ready to bake, preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
- Scoop & Roll. Place coarse sugar in a small bowl. Use a medium cookie scoop to form 2-Tablespoon sized balls of dough. Roll each ball smooth in your hand, then roll in the sugar to coat well. Place 6 cookie dough balls on one of the baking sheets and return the rest of the dough to the fridge in between batches.
- Bake Cookies. Bake each batch of cookies 9-11 minutes in the oven, or until edge are set and the centers look just slightly underdone. (The cookies will continue to set as they cool.) Remove the cookies from the oven and gently coax into perfect circles with a large cookie cutter, if desired.
- Cool. Let the cookies cool 1-2 minutes on the baking sheet before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
- Repeat this process until all cookies are baked, alternating baking sheets with each batch so you don’t put cold cookie dough on a hot cookie sheet.
- Serve & Store. Enjoy molasses cookies right away or store leftover cookies in an airtight container at room temperature 2-3 days. Or, transfer cooled baked cookies to a freezer bag and freeze up to 2 months.
Notes
- FLOUR. We highly recommend King Arthur Baking Measure-For-Measure gluten-free flour blend. If you use another brand (like Bob’s Red Mill), be sure it contains xanthan gum or your cookies will not turn out properly. Do not substitute coconut flour, oat flour, or almond flour in this recipe.
- BUTTER. Salted butter or unsalted butter works here. Just make sure it’s softened. You finger should just make an indent when pressed, but the butter shouldn’t look sweaty or greasy. (That’s a sign it’s too soft!)
- MOLASSES. Use regular unsulphured molasses, NOT blackstrap molasses. We recommend Grandma’s brand or Wholesome brand.
- COARSE SUGAR. For the prettiest cookies, use coarse sugar, like Turbinado sugar, raw sugar, Demerara sugar, or sparkling sugar. (I used sparkling sugar for these photos.) If you don’t have any of those, even something like organic cane sugar has a bigger grain than typical granulated sugar!
- Prep Time: 20 minutes
- Chill Time: 2 Hours
- Cook Time: 40 minutes
- Category: Dessert
- Method: Oven
- Cuisine: American
